Page 88 - RusRPTApr23

Russian exports to the EU countries for the period from the beginning of March to the end of December 2022 decreased by 53% in value terms - from €21.8bn in March to €10.3bn in December, the European statistical agency Eurostat reported on Friday.
"The value of imports from Russia fell by 53%, from €21.8bn in March 2022 to €10.3bn in December 2022," the agency says.
"The EU’s trade deficit with Russia peaked at €18.2bn in March 2022," the agency adds. Back then, the EU blocked a significant part of its exports to Russia, and sanctions on the purchase of coal, oil and steel in Russia had not yet entered into force and gas payments were still made in euros. By December 2022, the EU’s trade deficit decreased to €6.0bn.
Consequently, Russia’s share in extra-EU imports for six key products decreased with strong declines visible for coal, natural gas, fertilisers, petroleum oil and iron and steel, the agency notes.
"In particular, the highest drops have been recorded for coal (from 45% in 2021 to 22% in 2022), natural gas (from 36% to 21%), fertilisers (from 29% to 22%), petroleum oil (from 28% to 21%) and iron and steel (from 16% to 10%)," the agency says.
The EU trade balance stopped shrinking for first time in two years in February.
The EU trade deficit almost halved in the fourth quarter of 2022 to 87bn euros after 153bn euros in the third quarter, follows from Eurostat data. The eurozone trade deficit has grown for 14 consecutive months. It reached the record in August 2022 - 64.7bn euros in one month.
The main reason for reducing the deficit in the last quarter, Eurostat calls the decline in energy prices at the end of last year - in the fourth quarter, nominal imports of these products fell by 16% q/q.
Also, a significant contribution was made by the reduction in imports of raw materials (by 7.1%) and chemical products (by 6.9%). The overall decline in EU imports in the fourth quarter of last year amounted to 7.2% compared to the previous quarter, while the EU increased exports of goods by 1.1%.
Eurostat estimates that by the fourth quarter of 2022, the nominal volume of energy imports from Russia to the EU decreased by 16.6bn euros compared to the first quarter, while energy imports from the UK increased (by 1.5bn euros), Norway (by 3.7bn euros) and the United States (by 5.7bn euros).
The last quarter of 2022, in terms of foreign trade, did show some improvement against the background of the last two years, but it’s too early to
88 RUSSIA Country Report Russia April 2023 www.intellinews.com